Court rejects plea to include captain as accused

Kollam (Ker): A local court here on Thursday dismissed a private petition, seeking to list the captain of
Italian ship Enrica Lexie, whose marines allegedly shot dead
two Indian fishermen on February 15 last, as the first accused
in the case.

The two Italian marines,Latore Massimiliano and Salvatore
Girone, listed as accused in the case, are now lodged in the
central prison in Thiruvananthapuram under judicial custody.

Dismissing the petition filed by one Sreenivasan Venugopal,
an advocate, Chief Judicial Magistrate A K Gopakumar observed
that the case was not maintainable as the petitioner was not
an aggrieved party.

The court, however, directed the investigating team to
find out who had the authority to keep arms and order firing
in case of an emergency.

Enrica Lexie, captained by Umberto Vitelli, is now
anchored off Kochi coast and is awaiting a High Court verdict
on its plea to sail off.

Meanwhile, Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Steffan de
Mistura, who was in the city and held talks with the Chief
Minister Oommen Chandy two days back, left for Italy
yesterday along with his team of officials.

During the meeting with the Chief Minister, he had
requested that the marines be housed outside the prison as
they were military men and were yet to be found guilty.